Call of Cthulhu is by no means a new phenomenon. In fact, the first edition
of this rather unique game system was published in 1981, placing it in the
same era as other role-playing game (RPG) classics like Runequest,
Traveller and -- the granddaddy of them all -- Dungeons and Dragons.

However, with the notable exception of Dungeons and Dragons, most of the
early RPGs have faded into relative obscurity. Call of Cthulhu is another
survivor. It boldly leapt onto the RPG scene, quickly attained a firm
tentacle-hold, and has continued to grow in popularity ever since. Over the
past 16 years, Chaosium has published in excess of 100 supplements for the
Call of Cthulhu game system -- an impressive feat for any game company.

The H.P. Lovecraft Influence

Based on the wonderful and strange works of H.P. Lovecraft, the Call of
Cthulhu game immerses the players in the exciting era of the 1920s, complete
with flappers and gangsters, prohibition and popular Egyptology. But this
version of the 1920s also includes fanatically deranged cultists, sanity-threatening
conspiracies and, of course, unspeakably monstrous creatures;
creatures so terrifying to behold that the mere sight of one would send the
average person screaming and drooling straight to a padded cell.

Cthulhu himself is a creature of immense evil, trapped beneath the ocean
and worshipped by demented cultists struggling to free their monstrous lord.
The rest of the cthulhoid pantheon is equally cheery, populated by entities
like Nyarlathotep, Azathoth, Tulzscha, Ghatanothoa, and a whole host of
other equally unfriendly things, often with even more unpronounceable names.
A few of the epithets which are easier to get your tongue around, but are no
less ominous, include The Crawling Chaos, The Unspeakable, the Thing That
Should Not Be, and He Who Should Not Be Named.

Cthulhu and his fellow demonic deities might be unstoppable, if they cared.
Luckily for humanity these beings consider humans and their petty
achievements to be no more significant than those little microscopic insects
that live in your pillowcase. However, besides the mad cultists of
human persuasion, there are many servitor races that perform the will of
these dark gods. The bad news for us is that some of these races are far
superior to humans physically, intellectually and technologically, and some
of them tend to be as effectively immortal and as mind-shatteringly
horrifying to look upon as their evil masters.

A Brief Overview of the Game System

There are a few reasons why Call of Cthulhu has been so successful. First
of all, the nature of the game seems to encourage good role-playing. The
players (known as "investigators") are generally required to do some
creative and co-operative puzzle-solving in order to get to the
bottom of the mystery, to find or to improvise a solution, and to escape with their
lives and sanity intact. Most scenarios are at least somewhat dependent on
the evocation of an atmosphere during play, usually a creepy, spooky and/or
tense atmosphere. Chaosium has also done an absolutely marvellous job of
creating a rich gaming world that helps to set the tone of the game.

Investigators take on the persona of normal, average people: detectives,
reporters, professors, musicians, psychiatrists, or whatever. They have no
superhuman attributes. A typical player character might
have some special skills like photography, the ability to pilot a hot-air
balloon and/or a smattering of some obscure, archaic language. Characters
are extremely mortal and the monsters, generally, are not. Nevertheless,
the situation is not entirely hopeless for our heroes. With enough guile,
luck, arcane knowledge, bravado, or whatever it takes, they may prevail.

Perhaps the single most unique and perversely enjoyable aspect of this game
system is the concept of sanity. In Call of Cthulhu, a character's sanity
is probably the single greatest strength (or weakness) they may possess.
Anything may have an effect upon sanity. Spend a nice quiet weekend
relaxing with some soft music and a good therapist and your character's
sanity may increase. But if, as you are walking back to your room at night,
a horribly mangled corpse happens to fall out of the sky, you will most
likely loose some of that precious sanity. And, if the corpse happens to be
that of a close friend, you'll probably need several more weeks of rest.
One good clear look at a particularly nasty critter like a Shoggoth ("a
shapeless congerie of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with
myriads of temporary eyes forming and unforming as pustules of greenish
light..."), and chances are you'll run off screaming into the night --
and likely be eaten by that Shoggoth if you don't run in the right direction.

According to the original rules, sanity points once lost could never be
regained. This made the game an entertaining, but short-term and generally
hopeless affair. Succeeding editions, however, quickly rectified the
situation and enabled investigators to regain sanity by undergoing therapy,
defeating the monsters, attaining their goals, or sometimes even by spending
that tranquil weekend avoiding monsters and corpses. It should be noted,
however, that the more one learns about the horrible truths of the Cthulhu
Mythos the less likely one is to ever again attain a normal, comfortable
level of sanity.

Sanity, and the fact that the characters are usually caught up in something
involving a horrifying monster or other sanity-draining encounters, make the
goals of this particular RPG a bit different. In most games, the players
are out to survive, defeat the bad-guys (or the good-guys, in the case of
some of the newer Gothic games), grow rich and powerful and live happily
ever after. In Call of Cthulhu, the goals are simple: defeat the
incredibly powerful, virtually unstoppable horror without going permanently
insane and being eaten by the horrible monster (not even necessarily in that
order). Temporary insanity, however, is almost unavoidable -- which should
be seen as a good thing, as it provides more fun and challenging
role-playing opportunities.

But a good role-playing system is not enough to keep a game alive these days.
Players want lots of supporting material. And in this
department, Chaosium delivers.

Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu Publications

Chaosium has published several campaign-length, globe-spanning adventures
(e.g., Masks of Nyarlathotep and Shadows of Yog-Sothoth) and many individual
adventure modules, as well as many supplementary materials for players
and gamekeepers alike. The London Guidebook, The Cairo Guidebook and
The New Orleans Guidebook each provide great background material on
specific locations as they were in the roaring '20s -- or rather, as they
would have been in the '20s if Lovecraft's twisted mythology had been
reality, unknown to most of the general populace. The 1920s Investigator's
Companion gives the players plenty of material on the 1920s in general and
on specifics such as skills of typical occupations and costs of common goods.

In the past couple of years, Chaosium has expanded their publication of Call
of Cthulhu material to include fiction. They now have well over a dozen collections
of Lovecraftian stories in handsome trade paperback editions which include stories by
Lovecraft himself as well as by authors who inspired and were inspired by
his writings. For enthusiasts of the Call of Cthulhu game, and for
fans of darkly demented horror, these collections are a source of
considerable enjoyment.

But if you're new to the world of role-playing in the world of Lovecraft,
don't make the mistake of being overwhelmed by the volume of material in
print. All you really need to get started is a copy of The Call of Cthulhu,
5th Edition. It includes all the rules, explanations, and descriptions the
gamekeeper can't do without, and it even includes a few introductory
scenarios which can be used for novice players. Once you've started on this
path to madness, you'll no doubt appreciate the wealth of information,
supplements, adventures, and fiction available from Chaosium.

Coming Up

Over the course of the next few issues, we'll be taking a
closer look at some of the supplements Chaosium has produced for the Call of
Cthulhu game system. We'll be covering some of the material published for
Cthulhu gaming in the 1890s, in the 1990s, and in Lovecraft's Dreamlands (a
truly bizarre addition to an already disturbing world), as well as their
relatively new line of Cthulhoid fiction.